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Developer asks judge to push BPDA out of the way so he can build condos on Centre Street in West Roxbury if it won't vote on the project
By adamg on Fri, 12/09/2022 - 9:28pm
West Roxbury's own Filene's Hole, as seen through tear in fence covering tonight.
Gary Martell, who tore down a 19th-century home and a 1960s-era pillbox of a bank branch on Centre Street to make way for a 21-unit condo building, today sued the BPDA for failing to schedule a vote on the project, which has now left West Roxbury's main shopping area with a large fenced-off pile of dirt.
In his suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Martell also names the Boston Inspectional Services Department for what he says was incorrectly reversing an initial finding the project needed no zoning relief to a ruling that he would also have to seek approval of the Zoning Board of Appeal.
Martell, owner of C.A.D. Builders of Canton, says that because the BPDA failed to act on his application within 60 days after he filed it on Feb. 8, 2021, it's lost any right to tell him what he can or can't do with the land on Centre at Willow Street and that means the judge can and should either declare the project ready to go and make ISD issue him a building permit or order the BPDA to hold a vote on the project "forthwith."
This is not the first time the BPDA has simply sat on a proposal that West Roxbury residents have vocally opposed. Unlike Martell, Roxbury Prep did not sue when the BPDA continued to not hold a hearing on its proposal for a charter school at the West Roxbury/Roslindale line - for more than two years. Instead, the school just gave up and found a new site in Newmarket Square - which the BPDA then promptly approved.
Martell sued the Landmarks Commission last year after his demolition permit for the two buildings on the site was held up. ISD gave him permission to demolish the buildings.
Complete complaint (1.2M PDF).
Complete Landmarks Commission complaint (5.3M PDF).
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Comments
The day the Corrib in WR and
The day the Corrib in WR and Galway House in JP disappear while I'm still alive is the day I give a shit. It's also the day my old school taxpaying ass takes my investments to my enjoyment party so I can leave your ass with a big fat tax taking, problem property, and title nightmare with draining litigation. Can't take it with ya.
WR NIMBYs
My only problem with the project is that it fails to bulldoze Hennigan's operation next door. Let him take his miserable NIMBY self to some suburban strip mall that can only be accessed from a 50 mph stroad with no sidewalks.
Your name checks out
Maybe you should move BACK to whatever burb you hail from.
Why is it always NIMBYism
Why is it always NIMBYism when WR residents fight to preserve the character of their neighborhood?
When residents in other neighborhoods contest development its always applauded as "activism".
Also, when did neighborhood residents start coming the defense of property developers.
It's often echoed that Boston has a "housing crisis". Why is this crisis a Boston crisis and not Commonwealth crisis?
Why don't these developers build large low/mixed income developments where they live Canton (in this case), Westwood etc, to alleviate this "housing crisis.?"
I think we know why...
Residents in other
Residents in other neighborhoods who contest development are also usually called NIMBYs. People might take particular issue with WR's version of it because of perceptions that WR residents are more successful in their efforts.
Because there's less mass transit in Canton?
We should build in WR and Rosi etc... vs. isolated clumps out in the burbs.
Sorry you lost your decrepit single family house and small concrete bank, truly heartbreaking stuff.
So your argument is about mass transit?
So your argument to develop more in West Roxbury is because there is better mass transit then say Canton, Westwood, etc?.
Why don't you encourage more of your favored development in the suburbs so that more people can take advantage of the great schools rather than force them to take you prized mass transit to the failing Boston Public Schools.
Let's spread the wealth of cherished diversity to every town in Massachusetts. Diversity is our strength.
Check your privilege.
NIce word salad
Seeig as you're bringing up diversity as a negative in a discussion about housing development which, last I checked, is something all people need, maybe go burn some crosses in NH with Hal Shurtlieb and let our city improve in your absence.
Because people would rather live in Canton rather than WR?
I mean, after all, there's some reason you aren't moving out to Canton or Westwood to get away from all this construction...
All this construction...
Lot's of people prefer to live in Canton, Westood Etc...look to the loss of 8000 students in Boston Public Schools. Eight Thousand. They didn't leave for a lack of Centre St. condos.
They left because of people like you.
Again, when did the community start taking the side of commercial property developers instead of life-long neighborhood residents? Who has a more vested interest in the well-being of a community? Landlords from Canton?
Source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/02/metro/boston-public-schools-enrol...
Nah
I think it's far more likely that families moved out because there wasn't enough housing. Which is the kind of thing projects like this are trying to improve.
Maybe
People also 1000% moved out because BPS is a joke of a school system and they didn’t want to gamble their kids futures on maybe getting a decent education from one of the few good BPS schools.
West Roxbury
I don’t think people leave for any one particular reason but painting people who disagree with you as taking the side of landlords is a little bit unfair. There’s lot’s of reasons people move to Canton, price is one of them. My tiny single family in West Roxbury would be a 2500 sq ft house in Canton and I’d lose the private school bill. Living in Canton would also mean my wife and I would spend at least an extra hour a day in the car commuting which is a trade off we’re not going to make.
The only argument is to look to our close neighbors in Roslindale for a lesson in how smart development can completely turn around a neighborhood. Roslindale Square is now a destination that attracts GREAT businesses because the folks who live in Roslindale have been more open to development over the last 2 decades and have made steady progress. The average home price in Roslindale is now HIGHER than in WR despite the fact that there’s a lot more multi-family housing. It’s sad that this is where we are now.
There’s absolutely no reason we couldn’t have lots of nice businesses in WR other than vape shops, banks and insurance offices.
All this construction...
Lot's of people prefer to live in Canton, Westood Etc...look to the loss of 8000 students in Boston Public Schools. Eight Thousand. They didn't leave for a lack of Centre St. condos.
They left because of people like you.
Again, when did the community start taking the side of commercial property developers instead of life-long neighborhood residents? Who has a more vested interest in the well-being of a community? Landlords from Canton?
Source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/02/metro/boston-public-schools-enrol...
Hennigan?
Who/what is he?
He owns an insurance agency
Right next door to the pile o' dirt (in the photo at the top, those bright lights are Christmas lights on his building) and was one of the leaders in the effort to block the development and preserve the old house, which played a role in West Roxbury's history.
Good
Hope he wins.
Martell in general sucks and
Martell in general sucks and is also completely right on this. NIMBYism at play. The people who bemoan all the vacancies and banks on Centre Street in Westie are the same ones trying block any new housing and vibrancy there. The cognitive dissonance is staggering.
There's no cognitive
There's no cognitive dissonance. People who already own housing in Boston, rationally disapprove of more housing being built around them in Boston. That has little to do with the displacement of mom-and-pop retail and services by chains.
Not responding to a petition is 100% wrong
Not responding at all demonstrates the board's total contempt for the people who file petitions and treats the people of this Commonwealth as the serfs and the board members as their masters.
As I hail from the Socialist British Commonwealth of India, I am totally familiar with this contemptuous attitude from mere public servants towards the very people they are required to serve. This attitude is un-American.
If the board disapproves of a certain petition, it is required to say so on the record within a defined set of time. This developer's complaint says that is 60 days.
Personally I hope this developer crushes this board on this point, unlike the other wimps who simply caved and abandoned their petitions, as if the board members really are their invincible masters.
There is another side to the story
I hope the court hearing the case doesn’t jump to conclusions and simply accept as factual truth whatever is written in the plaintiff’s suit as so many of those commenting have done.. There’s a lot of bunk in the suit that was submitted by CAD. There is another side to the story, so it’s advisable to withhold rash judgment until all the facts are known and verified. The residents opposed to this development are not opposed to development that conforms to zoning laws and provides meaningful commercial space in the business district. This project does neither.
One solution
Martell could promise to put a Decelle's in the ground floor and all the Never-Change residents would either line up in support or go catatonic from the internal conflict.